[Vaupell]

deleted the standard tabs, by disabled their respective plugins.
then add you own with one of the 5-8 tab modificaitons availible..

i ewen made one myself that adds navigation from DB via the plugin system.
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=232224

And to ansver your other question, to run php
you either create a php file and run the templates in that not the other way around.
OR
create a plugin and run your php in there, but still render templates via php not other way around..

I know for a fact you can modify the layout anyway you want.
exsample : http://www.evisystems.org/?styleid=10 <-- NOT xhtml firendly its a build test.

default i run : http://www.evisystems.org/?styleid=8 <-- its just normal, more appealing.


EDIT : yes support tickets, usually faster than here..
vbulletin.org have died lately here on the forums, and alot of forum trolls have appeared.
so i guess the trolls came with the cms upgrade, and the great coders who responded help left for something else.